The consultants’ guide to creating content that grows your business
Using content to grow your business is a fantastic strategy. Especially if you’re not so keen on cold calling but you do like having lots of great work and making a decent living.
Creating and publishing content regularly:
Attracts more of your ideal clients.
Establishes you as an expert in your field.
Generates new business enquiries.
Helps close deals.
Opens the door to cool opportunities.
If this all sounds like jam you’re keen to slather on your business scone, this guide to creating content that’ll grow your business will be just your flagon of hot buttered rum.
We’ll take a look at:
Why content strategy matters if you want to make money with your content.
Why purpose isn’t just a buzz word.
Planning and researching content that isn’t a total waste of space.
Creating a content outline that makes writing easier and content juicer.
And why marinating ain’t just for BBQ.
So, buckle in sauce badgers, and prepare to have the mysterious secrets of content that pays the bills unveiled to you by someone who’s reasonably OK at it.
Content really works. But it’s not for everyone.
HubSpot’s research shows businesses who blog get 55% more website traffic than those who don’t. And Demand Metric found B2B marketers who blog get 67% more leads than those who don’t. Sweeeeeeeeet.
I’ve grown a six-figure copy writing consultancy in under two years purely on content marketing. And when I say content marketing, I mean posting most days on LinkedIn, and doing a blog post when I remember. But even my half-arsed content effort brings in enough leads that I don’t do sales calls and I’ve a waiting list wanting to work with me.
Content marketing is the right business development strategy for you if you:
Enjoy creating content.
Enjoy engaging with people online.
Dislike cold calling and direct selling.
Can commit to consistent activity. Even I do one thing consistently.
Can take a long-term view of your business and invest in a marketing strategy that’s a slow burn to start but gathers momentum over time.
It won’t work for you if:
You don’t like creating content.
You can’t commit to consistency.
You want instant results.
You’re obsessed with attributing revenue directly to marketing activity. Content marketing has a cumulative effect. It’s rare you can attribute $$$ directly to a particular piece of content.
So, if content marketing isn’t for you, sling your hook and don’t waste any more of your time. Not everyone is a solo publishing dynamo, and that’s ok. But if you’re a wannabe content machine, stick around, ‘cos we’re just about to get dirty with the details.
Better content starts with a solid content strategy
Content strategy is a whole topic in itself. And we won’t dig deep into content strategy in this guide because I do that elsewhere. But real quick … so as you get the bones, I use a simple five step content strategy process.
Step 1: Know who you serve and the problem you solve for them
Until you know this, all your content creation is simply pissing into the wind and hoping some of the drops make it to the urinal.
Step 2: Understand how content drives your customer journey
Understand the stages of customer awareness and the principle of creating content for each stage so you meet potential clients where they’re at.
In a nutshell, at each stage of the journey they go on to become your clients, your potential customers have different content needs. A strong content strategy considers their informational needs at each stage, and plans content to meet those needs.
Step 3: Create your own content strategy
Brainstorm your content pillars. Content pillars is simply a wanky content marketing term for topics you’ll write on regularly.
Great topics for consultants to write on can be:
Content that shows people how to fix their problems for free.
Answers to questions your clients ask.
Problems you fix for your clients.
How to guides sharing your strategies, processes and tactics.
True stories showing how to fix the problems you fix for your clients.
Case studies.
Client stories and interviews.
Your personal journey and how you learned to fix the problems you fix for your clients.
See how all these content topics are relevant to your ideal clients, but also support the services you offer, and build credibility, establishing you as an expert in your field?
For each content pillar, see if you can match content ideas to each stage of the customer journey, from bite size social content for the attract stage, to case studies and packaged offers at the convert stage.
Step 4: Set goals and measure success
I measure content marketing 4 ways:
Activity goals
Community growth goals
Performance goals
Money goals
Step 5: Do more of what works and less of what doesn’T
And that’s it. It’s not easy. But it’s simple.
GO DO THE THING
Get your content strategy ship shape with this detailed how to content strategy guide. There are a bunch of downloads you can use to make your content strategy planning easier.
Give your content some purpose
Once you’ve got a sound content strategy, it’s time to get contenting.
But you’re not done planning yet. Oh heck no. Because if you’re creating content to grow your business, every piece you put out there should have a purpose.
Why can’t you just write whatever you fancy?
If you hang out on LinkedIn (or any content platform from Medium to TikTok) you’ll see plenty of people writing whatever they feel like that day. But most of those people will not be seeing much, if any return on the time they spend creating that content. Sure, they may get likes and comments, but they won’t be getting business and opportunities. And I’m here to teach you how to use writing as a tool to build your personal brand and grow your business.
So, your writing needs to be purposeful. Which means every piece sets out to achieve a clear purpose for a specific audience. Every time you lay fingers to keyboard to squirt out some content you want to be sure that you know:
Who you’re writing for.
Why you’re writing.
What you want people to do.
Let’s look at each.
Who’s this content for?
Knowing who you’re writing for is vital. It helps you make your content more relevant to your audience. And it makes you a better writer because you’re able to imagine who you’re talking to. When we write directly to people we know, we all write in a more engaging way.
Of course, when you publish a piece of content it isn’t read by just one person. It isn’t even read by one type of person. But you don’t want to get sucked into the trap of writing for a general audience. In your mind’s eye, address every piece you write to a single ideal reader.
Prioritise who you’re talking to by asking yourself who has authority to read this content and become my client? This is your primary audience for your content.
Why should these people read your content?
Always know why you’re writing a piece of content. And the answer to that question should be focused on your reader NOT your business goals.
Sure, your content should support your business goals, but if it only spraffs on about how mind-blowingly excellent you are and how everyone should work with you stat, no one’s going to want to read it, because it’ll be self-serving dross.
So, know what your readers get out of each piece of content.
Ask yourself three questions to give your content purpose.
What will make this content relevant to my readers?
What can I promise them to make them want to read it?
And what do I need to give them to fulfil that promise?
Every purposeful piece of content makes a promise.
And there are three main content promises:
Information. When you’ve finished reading, you’ll know this.
Education. When you’ve finished reading, you’ll be able to do this.
Entertainment. Reading this will be fun / enjoyably thought provoking.
I came across a fourth content promise the other day in Justin Walsh’s Saturday Solopreneur email (love it, go subscribe) where he mentions empathetic content from people who understand you.
Good content is always entertaining.
Valuable content is entertaining and informative or educational or empathetic.
What do you want people to do?
Your content also has a business purpose. So, ask yourself what you want people to do once they’ve read your content, and when you close, tell them what to do next.
GO DO THE THING
Every time you start a piece of content, get clear on who you’re writing for, why you’re writing, and what you want people to do once they’ve chowed down on your content.
Make your content worth reading
Now I’ve got to confess something. You can follow every step in this guide and still produce an abysmal snore fest of derivative content if you don’t have something original to say.
You and I know, there’s nothing truly original under the sun, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to bring something fresh to the party. The world does not need more derivative, recycled content. Data uses energy people. Make your little corner of the apocalypse count.
There are two ways I know to do this.
Use your voice, your stories, your experiences.
Your stories and experience matter. Personal detail brings things alive. The best stories are often about a moment of realisation or transformation. But the powerful truths we grasp in those moments can seem overly simple, even banal, without context to bring them to life.
So, here’s my thought for the day, oh value adding, knowledge sharing consultants and coaches. When you share hard-won insights, don’t forget to share the roadmap too.
What does this mean?
Flesh out strategy with tactics.
Give actionable how-to advice.
Share real life examples so people can see theory in practice.
The true value is often not in the pithy advice, but the messy path that took you there.
Work with subject matter experts to bring their smarts to the world.
Nobody expects you to know all the things about all the things. But, if you’re writing about something you don’t know, don’t turn to Google. That’s how we end up with all that generic AF content that says the same thing. Find an expert instead and interview them.
Not only does this teach you new things and add more value to your community. It improves your reach because your friendly expert will share your content too.
And use other people’s words. Unless you’re writing an opinion piece, your own voice is overrated. Those experts you interview … Record those conversations, get ‘em transcribed, and use their words. Give each piece its own distinct flavour.
When you’re planning a piece of content ask yourself:
What stories can I tell to bring this topic to life?
Who can add a valuable perspective to this topic?
Planning makes content faster and better
Planning and researching before you write helps you write faster because you’ve done the hard thinking already. Here’s how I plan content.
1. Give each topic purpose before you plan
Identify your readers.
Know the problem your content will solve for them.
Know your call to action.
2. Vomit out everything you know about your topic
Do this before you do any research. If you do your research first and then pick your angle chances are you’ll end up producing a bunch of recycled blah indistinguishable from the beige morass of Google monkey produced SEO optimised shandy on page one of Google.
Get your take and your personality in there before you go filling gaps. And don’t censor yourself. There’s no such a thing as a bad idea at this stage. Get it all out and filter it later.
A few ways to do this.
Whiteboard session, by yourself, or with your team.
Use post-its (easy to group into themes).
If you’re a visual thinker, do a mind map.
Make a list of everything you know about your topic.
Approach it like a journo. Ask what, where, when, who, how and why?
Once you’ve got everything out, group your content into loose topics. Don’t agonise about this, it’s just to help you identify what you know, and where your knowledge might be light.
3. Find your angle
Content is more memorable with an angle.
Your content angle is different to your content purpose. Your purpose may be to answer a question for your ideal clients. But your angle is your perspective on that topic. It can be your personal take. It can be highlighting a common thread in a number of expert points of view. Or it can be taking a contrarian stance.
4. Decide what content to include
Go back to that problem you promised to solve your reader.
Look at each topic you’ve identified.
Ask yourself, do my readers need to know this to solve their problem?
If something isn’t relevant leave it out.
If you’re in two minds, leave a topic until the end and then ask yourself if it helps strengthen your content. Most times you’ll find you’re fine without.
5. Gather everything you need to bring your content to life
Rich content includes:
Real life stories and examples to bring your points to life.
Research and stats to add credibility.
Metaphors, images and infographics to help people understand.
This is also the time to plug any gaps in your knowledge with research or interviews.
6. Create an outline for your content
Put your topics in a coherent order. Imagine you’re about to help your friend through the process of solving this problem. What would you cover first? What comes next? Start with the most important stuff.
7. A simple, never-fail content outline for you to steal
When you create a content outline, cover the following bases.
Draft working title
Introduction
What’s this about?
Who’s it for?
Why should they read it?
Topics you’ll cover
Unpack each topic:
Strong sub header that explains to the reader why reading this section makes their life better
Points that support your topic
Bring it to life with stories and case studies, proof and stats, metaphors and visuals / infographics
Key takeaway or a learning to action
Conclusion
Summarise what you told your reader
One key thing to takeaway
Your call to action
Planning your content this way means you can write in bite sized chunks. This makes it easier to fit writing into your week as a regular habit.
And it helps you sort good ideas from flimsy ones. We’ve all had what we think is a great idea for an article, got halfway through and realised we don’t actually have enough to say. Planning stops that happening.
GO DO THE THING
Block out an hour or so to plan your content for the month, so when it comes time to write, you’re not agonising about what to say.
Write fast. Edit at your leisure.
Like a good sourdough starter, writing’s always better after a few days sitting. Crank that first draft out. Leave it as long as you can (minimum overnight). Then come back to it with fresh eyes and have at it with a sharp knife.
You’ll be astonished how clearly you see its strengths and flaws.
And read your writing aloud. Just like time, reading aloud exposes weaknesses in your prose. Yesterday a lucky plumber installing my new shower got regaled with an hour of sales coaching scripts, as I read a first draft aloud, gesticulations and all.
Good writing is conversational. So, if anything sounds awkward when you read it aloud, edit it to flow.
GO DO THE THING
When you’re planning content, build in at least a day’s leeway so you can leave your piece overnight to marinate, and come to it with fresh eyes in the morning.
No time to write your own content?
Hire me instead. I’ll talk to you, interview your experts, do the research and write you finger lickin’ fine content. Find out more about me blog writing moves over here.